Parallel vs. Serial Information Processing Remember - attention is about information processing

Parallel vs. Serial Information Processing Remember - attention is about information processing A fundamental question was “how much information can be processed at once?”

Parallel vs. Serial Information Processing Remember - attention is about information processing A fundamental question was “how much information can be processed at once?” –The answer seemed to be “not much” - but can we get a better understanding ?

Parallel vs. Serial Information Processing Remember - attention is about information processing A fundamental question was “how much information can be processed at once?” –The answer seemed to be “not much” - but can we get a better understanding ? At issue is whether or not the brain can processes several items at once or must selectively attend to each item in turn

Parallel vs. Serial Information Processing How could you determine that ?

Parallel vs. Serial Information Processing How could you determine that ? Visual Search paradigms

Visual Search Is there a green square?

Visual Search Parallel search: like many independent spotlights

Visual Search Serial search: each item is selected until target is found

Visual Search Serial search: each item is selected until target is found

Visual Search Serial search: each item is selected until target is found

Visual Search Serial search: each item is selected until target is found

Visual Search How could you test which kind of search was happening?

Visual Search Search Slope: How long per item?

Visual Search Search Slope: How long per item?

Visual Search Search Slope: How long per item?

Visual Search Serial Search - linear increase in search time with number of distractors

Visual Search Parallel search - search time is independent of distracter number

Visual Search Search slope for color singletons is flat. What does this tell us about color and attention?

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